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DVD Mrs. Miniver
A movie doesn't win seven Oscars for nothing. A glowing Greer Garson (Best Actress) commands the screen as Mrs. Miniver, a middle-class British housewife whose strength holds her family together as World War II literally hits their home. Walter Pidgeon as her architect husband seems to be the prototype for future TV dads in this affecting portrait of love--familial and romantic--during war. But the relationship between Mrs. Miniver's college-age son (Richard Ney) and the upper-crust Carol (Best Supporting Actress Teresa Wright) is filled with inherent drama--as the war speeds up their young love, it also has the potential to doom it. The 1942 film, which also won for Best Picture and Best Director, is filled with colorful characters, snappy dialogue, and sensational plot twists. Although you spend much of the movie dreading that one of the Minivers will become a casualty of war, when it finally happens, it's not what you anticipated. Exactly what you'd expect from a legendary film that lives up to its billing. --Valerie J. Nelson
A wonderful wholesome story of life during the war. Marvelous cast with Geer Garson and Walter Pidgon. One of my favourites.
England's finest hour
It's hard to watch this movie and not be affected by it: good, decent people making terrible sacrifices against an enemy that is trying to enslave them. As the minister says in his stirring "sermon" at the end, it's a "war of the people." England will persevere and Germany will be defeated. You can imagine how delighted Churchill was when this MGM movie first came out. Greer Garson stars, and although her acting can be stiff at times, when she is moved to anger she gets that look on her face that goes beyond good acting: we know exactly how she feels. Overcome I'm sure by wartime sentiment, the Academy awarded the movie a slew of Oscars. In terms of boosting the spirits of the British at this time in WWII, however, I still think THE 49th PARALLEL is a better movie.
Needed: A "Mrs. Miniver" for these times
Nearly four years after 9/11, Hollywood has made hardly a film about the War on Terror. Much of what is in the works (http://tinyurl.com/af3yl) appears to be rife with the cynicism and "nuance" we have come to expect of Hollywood since about 1970.
Would that Hollywood still retained the moral clarity required to produce a "Mrs. Miniver" for these times! To wit, the resolve of the nation as a whole--not just the brave members of the military--is required to fend off existential threats to both our way of life and our civilization.
Some may dismiss "Mrs. Miniver" as just so much World War II propaganda. Yes, this film had enormous propaganda value to the Allied cause. To end the discussion here, however, would be to deprive ourselves of an extraordinarily entertaining and moving film.
I won't describe the plot; that has been done extenseively elsewhere on this page. Instead, I will encourage you to look for the terrifying scene of a family--two parents, two children, and a cat--as they read "Alice in Wonderland" during an air raid. Also, note how the symbolism of a certain red rose is key to unlocking the meaning of the movie. Finally, as you're watching ask yourself if Hollywood would have the courage to produce such a dignified, understated, family centric and unabashedly patriotic film about life on the home front in today's War on Terror. Unfortunately, I don't think the studios have it in them, but here's hoping some brave mogul, producer, or director proves me wrong.
The ultimate tearjerker, this 1942 romance classic directed by Mervyn LeRoy (based on a novel by James Hilton) stars Ronald Colman as a British army officer suffering from amnesia after World War I. After falling in love with and marrying a dance-hall singer (Greer Garson), Colman's happy character begins a career as a writer and doesn't seem to mind that he doesn't remember who he is. A car accident changes all that, however, causing the hero's memory to return and making him forget all about his lovely cottage and bride. LeRoy modulates the obvious suspense element in the story (for example, is Colman going to remember Greer or not?) extremely well, building ever-so-deliciously slowly toward a huge payoff. This is one of the great date movies of all time. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Ronald Colman - Greer Garson Director(s): Mervyn LeRoy DVD Release Date: Released the 11 January 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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A three-hour weepy extraordinaire, this 1944 offering from producer David O. Selznick (who also wrote the screenplay) was a tribute to all the families who stayed behind while their men went off to fight in World War II. Claudette Colbert is the mother of daughters Jennifer Jones and Shirley Temple; first seen coming home after dropping her war-bound husband at the train, she becomes the model of courage and strength on the homefront. The plot has a Saturday Evening Post feel today, as it follows the family's day-to-day life and struggles, whether with a crotchety boarder (a delightfully starchy Monty Woolley) or oldest daughter Jones's doomed romance with departing serviceman Robert Walker. They don't make them like this anymore and it's too bad. Nominated for a fistful of Oscars,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Claudette Colbert - Jennifer Jones Director(s): John Cromwell DVD Release Date: Released the 19 October 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Winner of seven Academy Awards, including best picture, director, actor, and screenplay, William Wyler's brilliant drama about domestic life after World War II remains one of the all-time classics of American cinema. Inspired by a pictorial article about returning soldiers in Life magazine, the story focuses on three war veterans (Fredric March, Dana Andrews, and Harold Russell in unforgettable roles) and their rocky readjustment to civilian life in their Midwestern town of Boone City. Capturing the contradictory moods of America in the mid to late 1940s, this three-hour drama spans a complex range of honest emotions, from joyous celebration and happy reunion to deep-rooted ambivalence and reassessment of personal priorities. A movie milestone when released in 1946, The Best... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Fredric March - Dana Andrews Director(s): William Wyler DVD Release Date: Released the 05 July 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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One more terrific film from a terrific year for movies--1939, the year of Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, and Stagecoach, among others--Sam Wood's Goodbye Mr. Chips is a deeply stirring work starring Robert Donat as the old schoolmaster who looks back upon his life. Told mostly in flashbacks, the film wraps itself around a history of an older England as seen through the generations of boys who pass through Mr. Chips's classroom. Greer Garson is her usual classy, sexy-intelligent self as Donat's wife, their earlier courtship one of the film's highlights. Get out the Kleenex for this one. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Robert Donat - Greer Garson Director(s): Sam Wood DVD Release Date: Released the 03 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This silky smooth film noir pits gruff police detective Dana Andrews, stiff and blunt in his street-bred manners, against a cultured columnist and acidic wit (Clifton Webb at his prissiest) in a battle of wits during a murder investigation. The cop is a romantic hiding under a hard-boiled exterior who falls in love with the beautiful victim through the portrait that hangs in her apartment. Gene Tierney, whose heart-shaped face mixes the exotic with the girl next door, brings the poise and calm of a model to her role as the object of every man's gaze and the target of a killer. Laura, handsomely shot in dreamy black and white, is the first and best of Otto Preminger's cool, controlled murder mysteries. In the gritty world of film noir it remains the most refined and elegant example... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gene Tierney - Dana Andrews Director(s): Rouben Mamoulian - Otto Preminger DVD Release Date: Released the 15 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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